South by Southwest

Wow, two columns in a month during the offseason. You're all just darn lucky.

The Fire have finally signed midfielder Andy Williams. The obvious question is "what does this mean?" Well, the ramifications on the offense are awfully significant. First, it indicates that coach Dave Sarachan's initial notion of running a 4-4-2 with World Cup vet DaMarcus Beasley as the offensive engine has pretty much run aground. At this point, you have to expect a lineup that looks an awfully lot like what Fire fans have been used to over the last five years, except that the international center of gravity is quite a ways southwest of where it used to be, namely Jamaica instead of Poland. In fact, the team's entire international contingent, both senior and transitional, is drastically different than anything we've seen in the past, with two players from Jamaica (that is, if 2003 draft pick Damani Ralph signs with the team), one from Brazil and one from Botswana. Not exactly the Eastern Bloc anymore, to say the least.

Second, while it may look like the same sort of team on paper with that type of lineup, it won't be. No one really expects anyone to just come in and replace Peter Nowak in the first place. Where St. Peter would typically take the ball hard up the middle, Williams is more of a quick, close dribbler, who doesn't cover as much ground with the number of touches he takes. This also brings about close quarters with defenders, but as a good possession player, this plays to his advantage. Not unlike Beasley, as a matter of fact, and they both had league-leading numbers of fouls suffered last season to prove it. So I would expect a fair amount of tight passing between Williams, Beasley and defensive midfielder Chris Armas in the middle of the field, which will attract defenders and free up overlapping runs on the wings. Whether those guys then carry it straight at the defense or take it to the corner and cross to one of the tallest contingents of forwards in the league is yet to be seen, but my gut has the latter being more likely. Especially when you consider that we finally have some guys who can get that pass in effectively in Orlando Perez, on the left, and Justin Mapp, nominally on the right. Armas and Bocanegra are also good with the long ball out of the center, so expect to see some of that as well.

What's curious, and not from any sort of conspiratorial standpoint, is that we haven't really seen any of this in the preseason. Although I guess circumstances may have conspired against the team, as the key elements in a lot of this expected offense (Williams, Beasley, Armas, Mapp and forwards Rodrigo Faria and Ante Razov) have all been away from camp for a multitude of reasons at different periods of time. When they take the field together, the key is going to be maintaining possession in the center of the pitch. If they can do that, I suspect a lot of people will be surprised with the offensive output, pleasantly so if they're wearing Fire red.

No longer wearing Fire red, but very much in the news, is Hristo Stoitchkov, who lost his composure in a scrimmage and broke the leg of an opposing player, pretty violently, according to reports. If the apparently still-Mad Bulgarian carries on like this regularly in DC, it may shine a favorable light on ex-Fire skipper Bob Bradley, who was able to limit Hristo to just one red card in the time he was with the team.